One magical winter, my daughter was recruited as a Christmas toy tester. She took delivery of a snow-white poodle, which was able to recite its owner’s name and insert it into pre-recorded sentences voiced by what sounded like a Disney princess. Within a week, Fluffy had morphed from cute to creepy. The

在一个令人愉快的冬天，我女儿被招募为一款圣诞玩具的测试员。她领到了一只雪白的贵宾犬玩具，它能记住主人的名字，还会把主人的名字加入提前录制好的句子里，说话的声音像是迪斯尼(Disney)的公主。然而还不到一周，“毛毛”就从可爱的玩具变成了可怕的怪物。没完没了的重复和机械的语调让它听上去就像是恐怖片中的道具。

endless repetition and impassive intonation made it sound like a prop from a horror film.

我担心，同样的命运正等待着智能玩具CogniToys，这是总部位于纽约的美国公司Elemental Path正在研发的新玩具系列。在Kickstarter融资环节最近结束时，其首款产品——一只绿色的会说话的塑料恐龙，肚子上有个按钮——获得了5倍于原定募资额（5万美元）的支持。

I fear the same fate awaits CogniToys, a range in development by a new York based Americancompany, Elemental Path. By

它的独特卖点在哪里？每个恐龙都与IBM的Watson超级计算机相连。按下按钮提问，Watson会在互联网上搜索，寻找一个安全且与儿童年龄相宜的答案。家长无需担心它会带来尴尬：上帝是否存在？孩子是怎么生出来的？这些问题会得到这样的回答：“问妈妈去。”

the time a Kickstarter fundraising round closed on Wednesday, its first product — a green plastic speaking dinosaur with a button on its belly — had received five times the $50,000 funding requested.

但卖点还不止于此。在我们的孩子从这款玩具中学习知识的同时，据称这款玩具也会从孩子身上学习并促进其智力发育。这款玩具宣称，孩子和恐龙的个性会互相影响。随着孩子提出的问题变得更深奥，CogniToy的回答也会变得更成熟。货真价实的21世纪家庭生活的场景就这样出现了：一对家长，和一个永远以共生状态与自己的Watson电脑支持的小伙伴结合在一起的孩子。

Its unique selling point? Each dinosaur is linked to IBM’s Watson supercomputer. Press its button to ask a question, and Watson will trawl the internet looking for a safe, age-appropriate answer. Parents need not fear awkward moments: an inquiry about whether God exists, or how babies are made, will earn the coy response: “Ask mommy.” [JUST MOMMY?]

这个无所不知、与你的孩子共同成长的小恐龙，远程配备威力巨大的运算能力，是这样一种趋势的终极体现：游戏时间正变成一个极其严肃的问题，远远不再只是给肚中胎儿播放莫扎特(Mozart)音乐。6个月大的婴儿就成为了迷你笔记本电脑等所谓智能玩具的目标。鉴于常青藤大学(Ivy League)和顶尖工作面临来自全世界的竞争，家长们认为有必要更早一点把他们下一代身上隐藏的爱因斯坦(Einstein)特质挖掘出来。

But there is more. Just as the child learns from the toy, the toy will supposedly learn from the child and push her intellectually. The personality of one will, it is claimed, influence that of the other. As the child’s questions become more probing, so the CogniToy’s responses will mature. The scene is set, then, for a truly 21st-century picture of family life: parents and a child who is permanently and symbiotically welded to her Watson-enabled pal.

然而，多数儿童心理学家称，玩具不会让孩子们更聪明；自由玩耍才会。后者能让儿童主动参与，而不是被动接受。乐高(Lego)得宝(Duplo)系列积木能够通过几乎无穷无尽的排列方式组合在一起；蜡笔、颜料、纸张和粘土会激发创造力；谜语和拼图会让小孩子有机会练习模式识别，让孩子们的小手指有机会锻炼协调能力。这些玩具永远不会被淘汰：“毛毛”已经被打入“冷宫”，而我家客厅地毯上却还摆着用十年前买的乐高积木搭成的轮船。

The know-it-all, grow-with-your-child dinosaur, armed remotely with fierce computing power, is the ultimate expression of a trend that is turning playtime into a deadly serious issue. It goes far beyond playing Mozart to junior in the womb: babies as young as six months are targeted with so-called smart toys, such as miniature laptops[LINK?]. Given the global competition for Ivy League universities and top jobs, parents feel compelled to start coaxing out their offspring’s inner Einstein ever earlier.

这种新玩具听上去像是个没有屏幕的电视机。如果孩子们所有的问题都被这个绿色的小恐龙解决了，那么他们还有什么动力去探索其他的询问方式呢？不用与玩伴、父母或书籍相伴了吗？激发原创思维的是未解谜题或令人困惑的问题所带给人的刺激。

Yet, according to[SOME?] most child psychologists[LINK/SOURCE?], gadgets do not make children smarter; open-ended play does. This turns junior into an active participant rather than a passive recipient. Duplo blocks can be assembled in almost infinite permutations; crayons, paints, paper and clay encourage creativity; and puzzles and jigsaws give little minds a chance to practise pattern recognition and tiny fingers a chance to hone co-ordination. These toys endure: while Fluffy gathers dust, my sitting room carpet is a vista of Lego boats scavenged from bricks we have had for a decade.

《心理科学》(Psychological Science)杂志的一项研究显示，经常玩积木和图版游戏等传统玩具的孩子，往往在科学、数学和工程方面表现更为出色。交给孩子们一个与Watson超级计算机相连的玩具可能听上去很棒，但它不太可能让你的孩子变成神探夏洛克(Sherlock)。

This new gadget sounds like screen time without the screen. If a child has all his queries settled by a green dinosaur, where is the incentive to develop other modes of inquiry? What about engaging with playmates, parents or books? The thrill of an unsolved puzzle or a perplexing question spurs original thinking.

那么或许家长应更多地将CogniToy看成一个朋友和知己？这种愿望同样会落空：一个假想朋友的沉默和一个真实同伴的狡猾伎俩都能让孩子们学到很多。除非它也会变得粗鲁、爱发脾气、闹别扭、疲劳而且有时滑稽易变，否则超级计算机的大脑无法很好地模拟儿童之间的友谊。

A study in Psychological Science[LINK? IS THIS SEPARATE FROM THE ‘CHILD PYSCHOLOGISTS’ POINT?] showed children who played regularly with traditional toys such as blocks and board games[EG? SPECIFICALLY OF THE OPEN-ENDED KIND?] tended to do better at science, maths and engineering. Handing over a gadget linked to Watson may sound cool but is unlikely to turn your child into Sherlock.

然而，这仍会吸引那些时间紧张、并且认为填鸭会让孩子变聪明的父母，他们不介意自己的孩子会变得像硅谷的“极客”们有时表现出来的那样，略有些不善社交。这款玩具应该会非常畅销。

So perhaps parents should see the CogniToy more as a friend and confidante? That, too, is dispiriting: a child will learn much from both the muteness of an imaginary friend and the Machiavellian manoeuvring of a flesh-and-blood peer. Unless it is also rude, tantrum-prone, uncooperative, tired and occasionally hilariously unpredictable, the brain of a supercomputer offers a poor simulacrum of child friendship.